Don't Touch The Cheetah's Face

This excursion needed it's own post because the phrase "Don't Touch The Cheetah's Face" was echoed so much, I lost count. It is definitely the motto for this holiday and is still in circulation in the G-F household today. Whilst in Stellenbosch we visited Cheetah Outreach in Somerset West. In order to stroke the cheetahs, you have to go in to the enclosure with a handler and be very quiet and mindful and be careful not to "Touch The Cheetah's Face". Thanks to April for encouraging us to go!

 

 

 

 

My North American friends, ever seen/heard of a caracal? Well hear ya go. Meet Malaika.

 

 

 Meerkat Manor. So.Good!

 

 




 

Anatolian sheepdogs. Raised to be given to sheep farmers as a natural deterrent against cheetahs, jackals, and caracals to reduce the likelihood of the farmers needing to shoot these animals when they steal the livestock.

 

  

Just remember: "Don't Touch The Cheetah's Face"!

Homecoming Part 1.

Three Years?!! Three... years! Way. Too. Long. We had a wonderful, wonderful trip filled with many familiar faces, some new ones, too many steak dinners, a camera casualty, a safari and a cancelled flight. All-in-all what counts is that no-one was injured, the damage to property was minimal and we really maximised our time with friends and family. Two weeks yields a lot of photographic evidence so I'm going to split the next few posts up according to geography and time. Hopefully I won't leave anything out without hearing the sounds of snoring.

Cape Town, Stellenbosch and General Winelands

From a sweltering, humid New York, we arrived to a quintessential Cape Town winter complete with soaking rain, freezing buildings and welcome fires. It was great to see the doggle again who I think remembered me after so long and to cuddle with her by the fire.

There may or may not have been a strange creature lurking in the background on night one..

The next day kicked off the kuier-ing (visiting) with the new little face of Corban (who Jo-Anne was pregnant with at our wedding!), the sweetest little face of Miss Ava Evangeline and the friendliest of faces of Jo and Rudi who we were very excited to see. We met in Stellenbosch for lunch with a rainy backdrop that demanded some finger puppets and a jungle-gym. I'm hoping we won't wait another 3 years before seeing the kiddles again.

 

 I think Ava is saying "cheese" in this one..! Cutey-patootie!

 Uncle Ryan?! Who would have thunk it?!

Rudi and Jo, it was so much fun hanging out with you guys. Can't wait to do it again.

Staten Island Half Marathon 2013

 

Have you ever been to Staten Island? The most I've seen of it is jumping on the (free) ferry to get a "Staten Island Hot Dog" and jumping right back on. Today I took it a little further and ran (read limped) a half marathon around the waterfront. My knee has been bothering me but I thought I could make it through. Uh, no. Half marathon owned me. Anyway despite some anguish, I did run the first 6 miles and walked/ran the rest - and didn't get picked up by the dreaded (too slow to meet the cut-off time) "wagon" so there's that. 

Don't let my experience discourage you though. Here is an excellent reason to go on the Staten Island ferry:

 And open again after the government shut-down ;)

Photo creds to my sweet husband, who didn't say "I told you so" when I limped towards him at the finish line.

Apple picking!

While I work on sifting through my mammoth photos from our (recent - is 6 weeks ago recent?) trip to South Africa, here is a much simpler post of what we've been up to, to celebrate the changing fall weather. It's makes my somewhat type-A personality very happy to tick things off the to-do list, especially when these "to-do's" are seasonal. Apple picking has been on the list for a few years so I'm glad that we finally went. Mila even came with and despite some car sickness (on her part), the trip went off without a hitch!

 Not sure what I was wearing?! It was freezing and muddy - I never been one for dressing appropriately for the weather.

 Apple picking in action - yup that's how you do it! 

 No-one told me there would be a pumpkin patch - whoop, whoop!! 

Back to the city with a pretty view of George's (Washington) bridge.